Essay about Religion, Politics and Gender Ideology

Witch hunts blazed across Europe over the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries not just killing innumerable innocent people, but stripping women of much of the power they had once held, and changing society's perceptions of women all together. The economic hardships, religious rivalries, and troubled politics of the time made accusing your neighbors of witchcraft convenient. Where there was war and poverty, or merely bad luck, peasants would assume witchcraft and rush to blame an old, defenseless woman in trials which involved unbelievable cruelty and horrible sadism. As religion and the Catholic Church began to complement and perpetuate the increasing hysteria, European society as a whole could do nothing but

The Salem witch craft trials are the most learned about and notable of Europe's and North America's witch hunts. Its notoriety and fame comes from the horrendous amount of people that were not only involved, but killed in the witch hunt and that it took place in the late 1700's being one of the last of all witch hunts. The witch craft crises blew out of control for several reasons. Firstly, Salem town was facing hard economic times along with disease and famine making it plausible that the only explanation of the town's despoilment was because of witches and the devil. As well, with the stimulation of the idea of witch's from specific constituents of the town and adolescent boredom the idea of causing entertainment among the town was an

It is important to understand the meaning of witchcraft to be able to identify what caused the massive witch-hunt in Europe. During the medieval to the early modern period witchcraft was identified as the practice of harmful, black or maleficent magic caused by a witch (Levack, 1987, p. 4). They also describe them as evildoers that associate with the Devil, kidnap children, and murder others. These accusations were untrue rumors made by the Catholic Church to promote Christianity and punish those who did not follow the church beliefs. (Levack, 1987, p. 7)

During the late fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries, thousands of individuals were persecuted as witches. It was thought that these individuals practiced black magic and performed evil deeds, the deeds of the devil. This all happened during a time of great change in Europe, during the time of the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the consolidation of national governments. They were persecuted for a variety of reasons, but three major ones were religious reasons, social prejudices, and the economic greed of the people. Religious leaders such as Martin Luther and John Calvin influenced the ideas of their followers. Religion dominated the time period and it’s easy to see how many opinions

Though the Puritans left excellent records, these witch trials are still shrouded in mystery, and to this day historians debate why they happened. One explanation is that the Puritan philosophy of denying oneself any luxury left the young girls who started the Witch Hunt feeling starved for attention, causing them to act out. Whatever the reason is the fact remains that in February of 1692 two young girls began experiencing “fits” and blamed satanic rituals performed by some of the women of Salem. Massive hysteria erupted, and the trials resulted in the death of twenty-two people.

These individuals may or may not have been witches, yet the jury many times chose to hang any accused individuals with or without reasonable cause. Today, much like during the Witch Trials, people are sent to prison for crimes they didn’t commit. Of course, many guilty people are sent to prison and rightfully so, but sometimes good lawyers are able to convince the jury unjustly sending innocent individuals to a life in prison. Though, Americans are not scared of being sent to jail for witchery, they are scared of being in the wrong place at the wrong time due to the fear of governmental polices.

All participants in the witch-hunt were influenced by the society that existed in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Salem operated as a theocracy, a government ruled by and subject to religious authority. In a theocracy, people's sins are not forgiven, so that when they commit an indiscretion, they are left feeling guilty. "The witch-hunt was....a long overdue

Today if one was called a “witch,” most of us would take offense, yell, scream, or simply just ignore it and walk away, but over 300 years ago that was not the case. The 1600’s were full of controversy and uncertainty that led to cruel consequences due to even the simplest claim of witchcraft. By the time 1692 came around not much had changed, in fact, it was much worse. The town of Salem, Massachusetts became the spot of the most infamous witch trials of all: the Salem Witch Trials.

The Puritans during the witch hunt believed that women were unholy by nature and felt that women should be “sweet” and responsible, and if you didn’t act as such they would accuse you of being a witch. They lived under harsh rules and brought the same intolerance they had from fleeing England to escape to Massachusetts Bay Colony. Majority of the accusations of being a witch were women but not all. An Indian woman named Tituba that was purchased from the Barbados by Samuel Parris was being a witch. She had very good knowledge of the supernatural and they began to suspect her of being accused for witchcraft or

From the time of the 1690’s the entirety of Salem, Massachusetts were Puritans. “The Puritan lifestyle was restrained and rigid: People were expected to work hard and repress their emotions or opinions. Individual differences were frowned upon.” (Salem Witch Trials, The World Behind the Hysteria). These people believed that doing anything sinful would result in punishment from God. Just as much as they believed in God, they also believed in the Devil. Keeping up with the Puritan code, it led to the first women being accused of witchcraft. They were viewed as pariahs, and seen differently. Had the Puritan government let the afflicted defend themselves, not be so dependent on religion, not investigating the facts or scrutinize the trials the killing of many could have been prevented. The hangings from the trials would ultimately be the last in America.

Nineteen were hung, one was pressed and tortured to death, hundreds were imprisoned, and five had died while waiting to be trialed in prison. They were just a victim of being someone’s personal vendetta. The witch trials were revolved around a group of women that were said to of witnessed witchcraft. These young women were thirsting after their enemies to get the type of justice they thought to believe was reasonable for things certain people had done in the past that enraged them. Witch hunts like these root back far, all the way back to New England. During the 17th century europe was swarmed with accusations of

A few centuries ago in Europe, the fear of witchcraft led to witch hunts and executions. These occurred mostly in France, Germany, northern Italy, and Switzerland. “Tens of thousands of people in Europe and European colonies died,” and “millions of others suffered from torture, arrest, interrogation, hate, guilt, or fear,”. It is estimated that the early modern witch trials claimed the lives of nine million Europeans, 80% of whom were women which led early feminists such as Margaret Murray, Mary Daly and Barbara Ehrenreich, among others, to wonder: “Was the witch-hunt an intentional woman-hunt”. Back then, women were accused of being witches since Accusations of witchcraft required no evidence of guilt. The trials were “intended only to produce

Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth, Christianity, and tea, all those things are closely related to Scotland and England. However, like all the other things in the world, England and Scotland are not perfect nor ideal. They also have their own dark and bloody history, and one of the most important part of that history is the origin of witch-hunt, or in other words, the execution of witches. Witchcraft was treated as the craft of wise at the very beginning. Then, as the witchcraft grew stronger, the conflict between the Christian religion and witchcraft finally lead to the bloody witch-hunt; but witch-hunt is not as simple as a conflict between two beliefs, in fact, the cause behind witch-hunt is the characteristic inside us. Witch-hunt represents not only the fear of witchcraft itself, but also the fear of the unknown and the instability.

Gender Issues in Religion Amongst the world religions are many different attitudes towards gender issues and sexuality. A hundred years ago, or even a lot less, these different perspectives did not exist, as they were often considered unimportant, as King noted 'until recently little attention has been paid to gender differences and their impact on religious teaching and practice. '[1] With some religions, their scriptures are considered to be infallible and therefore not to be questioned.

I believe gender and religion is a very interesting topic because there are many ways these two topics intermingle and affect each other. There are many ways that one could go about analyzing the complex and ever-changing relationship between religion and gender. It is important to look at the higher spiritual being or beings that are worshiped, the religious leader such as a priest or rabbi, and also the members of a certain religion and asses how gender affects it.